Why Video is Essential to Your Digital Marketing Strategy

The concept of video marketing is nothing new, but it’s worth looking at the ways in which video marketing has evolved. Dozens of new digital marketing trends are emerging in 2019, and video appears to be one that’s here to stay.

Let’s take a closer look at why video should be essential to your digital marketing strategy, and how successful online marketers are making use of videos to build their brands and businesses.

YouTube Video

When thinking of online videos, people generally think YouTube. The video-sharing website is now the second-largest social media platform, with more than 1.5 billion monthly users and nearly 5 billion videos watched per day. That’s a lot of opportunity to get noticed.

Maintaining a YouTube channel is also incredibly cost-effective and can even serve as an additional source of revenue for your company, if done right. Thanks to the broad audiences YouTube attracts, there are opportunities for all types of businesses and marketing objectives, whether it be educational, interactive, or promotional. Here are a few companies we think are doing it right:

Mark Hurd’s Oracle news channel is a prime example of a company positioning its executives as thought leaders within their industry. Heavy on keynote speeches, updates, perspectives on industry news, and interviews with other tech professionals, this channel is perfect for information-based marketing.

Kraft’s Recipes channel features the sort of playful, instructional type of videos many food and beverage companies use to great effect. These are often shorter videos, which are a great ways to highlight recommended product uses and are highly shareable.

Free People has a great example of how a fashion brand’s YouTube channel can engage consumers through an array of video topics. Offering a behind the scenes look at inspirations behind the brand and tips for how fans can live the “free people lifestyle,” this channel also features workouts, recipes and fashion inspiration.

There’s one commonality you may notice in each of these channels: they’re incredibly simple. When it comes to video marketing, simpler is often better. Straightforward titles and easily-digestible content are especially helpful for viewers on the go.

Fortunately, this simplicity also translates into a less intimidating production process. Depending on your subject, you can often get away with creating videos using only a few hundred dollars worth of basic equipment, or even just a smartphone! Editing video isn’t too difficult either, as most modern laptops have editing software built-in, and there are multiple free or inexpensive apps for video editing available for both PCs and mobile devices.

Mobile Video

In 2018, the majority of video consumption occurred via mobile devices, with the average user spending three hours on their mobile phones each day. It's important to keep appropriate goals in mind when creating video, to ensure its effectiveness with this growing audience. People who watch videos on their phones aren’t interested in overly promotional or spammy content.

To truly make an impact, you should focus on objectives other than just sales. Videos should be customer-centric, with intentions to educate, entertain, and inspire viewers about your brand as a whole. A great example came from a short clip made by Starbucks last year in honor of Pride Month. The wordless five second video earned a whopping 587 shares and 112K views. Why was this so successful? The content played on viewers’ emotions and gave Starbucks fans something memorable to support together. Understanding your target audience and their values is critical for making this type of strategy work.

When creating your mobile video marketing strategy, it’s also important to keep in mind how most people use their phones. Sound, for instance, can make all the difference in your video’s success. Nearly 85 percent of Facebook video views happen in silent mode, so it’s highly recommended to create storylines that don’t require sound to make sense. Video length is also something to take into consideration. Mobile users are generally on the go and browsing quickly, so the less time it takes to get your message across, the better.

Micro-Video

The rapidly growing use of micro videos is another trend to watch. The incredible success of Instagram stories for brands have caused more and more businesses to start sharing micro-moments on the platform. Short 15 to 30 second ads are highly effective, particularly among younger audiences. Not only does this strategy contribute to easier production, it’s also a surefire way to boost engagement with customers. Through the inclusion of polls, sliding scales, and answerable questions, Instagram stories provide real-time data on how viewers interact with your posts and offer a direct channel to engage your fans.

Additional perks of this strategy include the ability to give audiences a behind the scenes look at the inner workings of your brand. Posting Instagram stories to your brand’s account only requires a smartphone, and from there you can demonstrate the creativity, personality, and general happenings your fans might want to see. Product sneak peeks or highly anticipated announcements are also great subjects for micro videos.

Instagram stories only last 24 hours, this type of ephemeral content creates a sense of urgency for audiences to view the story while they can. Other examples of uses for micro videos include:

• Team introductions: Adding a personable human factor to your brand is as simple as a quick trip around the office. Introduce your team members and their roles or have them answer a fun question of the day.

Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR)

Augmented and virtual reality are two trends enabling tech-forward businesses and marketers to offer personalized, interactive experiences to customers. It’s rapidly becoming easier and more affordable to incorporate AR and VR into your company’s video marketing strategy as technology advances.

Companies implementing VR today include Toyota, which uses VR headsets to show people what it’s like to ride in the Toyota Comfort Ride concept car, an autonomous vehicle powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Similarly, Honda is providing an AR experience through the “Honda Lens” to give customers interactive tours of different vehicle features. We can expect to see a lot more of these technologies emerge as younger generations become the top consumers.

Up Your Video Marketing Game!

Marketing is an ever-evolving field. As technology advances, the speed at which new video trends are adopted increases, and it's up to you to make sure your company keeps up with the times. We think video marketing is here to stay, and we hope this article can help you create your most effective content yet.

Maddie Davis is co-founder of Enlightened Digital and a tech-obsessed female from the Big Apple. She lives by building and redesigning websites, running marathons, and reading anything and everything on the NYT Best Sellers list.